The Samsung Galaxy Alpha has arrived at Vodafone UK! To celebrate, we've been speaking to Samsung about what makes it stand out from the crowd.

The Samsung Galaxy Alpha has just landed at Vodafone UK, and it’s one of the best looking smartphones we’ve ever seen. To find out what makes it different from the Galaxy S5 and the Galaxy Note range, and how it came to be, we’ve been chatting to Samsung’s James White.

If you’re looking for an Android phone with big brains and the beauty to match, read on to find out why the Galaxy Alpha could be just what you’ve been looking for…

Bravo, Alpha

“When designing, engineering and building Galaxy Alpha, we asked consumers throughout the world what they want from Samsung devices, and what came out of that was more choice and personalisation,” James says.

“We always listen to what consumers and the industry says about our devices, and it’s important to take comments on board. When you look at the S5, it’s designed the way it is to make it really durable, and that’s a really powerful selling point – that it’s life-proof. Alpha is more driven by style, and that means different design and materials. We don’t want to offer one-size-fits-all; we want to offer our customers a lot of choice.

“With that in mind, what we’ve done with the Alpha is build a device that has a lot of the same features and spec as the S5, but that offers the consumers something different. With the S5 the key selling point is flexibility and durability with the IP67 water resistance. It’s a device that delivers on tech but also fits an active lifestyle.”

“Alpha delivers on tech, but also offers a really premium style. It has a brushed metal surround, for example, which a lot of our consumers were asking for.”

James isn’t kidding. The Alpha is a really good looking phone, with all the right ticks in all the right boxes when it comes to spec. It may lack the water resistance found on the S5, but it still boasts a fast-focussing 12-Megapixel camera, a Quad-core 1.8 GHz processor and a brilliant 4.7-inch display.

“Samsung has always been at the forefront of driving what some people call the ‘phablet’ category…”

That display is smaller than the one found on the S5, and James explains that’s a very conscious decision:

“Samsung has always been at the forefront of driving what some people call the ‘phablet’ category,” he says. “For us, that’s all about the immersive experience that you get from a larger screened device. But Alpha is about offering consumers choice.

“People love our Galaxy Note range of larger screened devices, they love the Galaxy S5 and they’ve loved previous S phones at a range of different sizes, but we recognise that not everyone wants to jump straight into a larger screened device. What the Galaxy Alpha does is offer a larger screen than a lot of UK consumers have had on their smartphones before, without necessarily jumping to the larger formats we have with the Note and the S5.”

The right phone for the right person

“Development for devices like this takes a long time because you’ve got to make sure things are right for the consumer,” James explains. “Galaxy S will remain our flagship category, and with the S5 we launched something that we think builds on the brilliant heritage of really strong flagship. Alpha doesn’t detract from that at all. It has a lot of the same technology, but packages that in a different way for a different type of consumer.”

So what kind of people is the Galaxy Alpha aimed at?

“For us, it’s about very fashion conscious people,” says James. “People who want a device that compliments the way they live their lives. Having a compact 4.7-inch screen, combined with very powerful tech and features – all within that premium design – is something that really works together with that kind of style-driven consumer.

“At the end of the day having separate devices like this is brilliant because people get choice – IP67 water resistance on the S5, or more premium design on the Alpha.”

Ready to go premium? The Galaxy Alpha is available now on any of our Red 4G plans. Click here to find out more. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is also coming to Vodafone very soon, so stay tuned for more info on that, as well as more from James on how the Note’s big screen is a big bonus.